Time for a Taylor: Isabella's 5th Birthday party

The courtyard cleared for party action after the rain cleared.

Today was Isabella's 5th birthday party and we had 7 little people coming over to help celebrate. They were: Amelia, Meg, Jess, Annabelle, Bridget, Kaitlyn and Cooper. I decided to organise a fairy to entertain them and to let me have a chance to touch base with the mums that I usually only get to see in passing. Eg on the way to or from preschool.

I got hold of 'We came here to party' and organised a fairy through the lady in charge 'Kylie'. We were amazingly lucky with the weather today. The forecast was for rain and so I had set up the entire party inside, moving furniture in my craft room to the edge of the room so that there was enough room for them to move. The fairy arrived and the skies cleared and it ended up getting really quite hot! So out we moved them. The party finished while it was dry, but about half an hour later the rain was pouring down and we were thanking our lucky stars that we'd had a dry morning!!

The Great Stuff

Fairy Laura was pretty and her costume was gorgeous. She really could've passed as a fairy! The cupcakes, balloons and party bags were exactly as described. Fairy Laura was on time to the minute! Her punctuality was fantastic and let me relax! She got herself organised quickly as far as set up, chairs, music, costumes etc. The children (all the girls) were engaged the whole time!

The Good Stuff

Fairy Laura arrived 15 minutes early to set up and was stunning in her purple fairy ensemble. She unpacked her car quickly and had Isabella help her. She thought helping Fairy Laura was wonderful! The set up included pink chairs (although the website says they have pink cushions as well - there weren't any), a little white tree with butterflies on it for decoration, a white basket with pink ribbon on it for the prizes, another container full of the fairy costumes, cupcakes for the children(fairy topped ones for the girls and a pirate one for Cooper, the only boy), lolly bags and helium balloons (I had to pay extra for those). She was very polite and friendly and she greeted the children as they arrived. She had the kids engaged the whole time and there was very little noise coming from them. They played some cute games outside and were all very happy. The prizes were good quality and the kids loved them so much that many of them came inside to show 'mum' what they had won. Very cute.

The not so good Stuff

So the issues I had with Fairy Laura were her arrival in my house chewing on gum. It kind of ruined the wholesome fairy goodness that my five year old needed. She did get rid of this before any of the kids arrived though. Although Fairy Laura greeted the kids as they arrived it seemed that she had nothing for them to do in this time other than sit on their little pink seats. I think I would've liked to see some story-telling on a special 'story mat' or her putting on their dresses while waiting for the others to arrive. The children arrived between 10 and perhaps 10:15. So I feel that 15 minutes of that time could've been better spent. The Fairy party didn't really cater for boys, although they said that they did. I asked if they could supply something for the little boy that was coming to wear and they said 'no' in a round about way. I ended up going out and buying a little pirate costume which I'm sure will come in handy in the dress-up box for when we have boys over to play dress-ups or for when Hamish is old enough to play. I'm not sure if quiet always equals good fun! But it did mean that the parents had a chance to drink a hot cuppa! Supposedly the party says 2 hours, but in reality they don't stay for the 2 hours. Fairy Laura arrived 15 minutes before the party and then packed up at 11:30, half an hour before the end of the party. I thought she was going to stay for the cake, but to be honest I spoke with so many party places that they may not have said this. I really should write down what exactly is on offer shouldn't I! The only other thing that worried me was that Fairy Laura took off all her fairy stuff before she finished packing up which I thought broke the illusion of 'magic' that she had created. I would have liked to see her disappear in her fairy outfit.

So I was happy to pay the money in the end and had a fantastic time at Isabella's birthday party. She had an awesome time too and really that is the main thing. I think the little things that I nit-picked wouldn't even have been noticed by most people, but I'm very fussy!